Theology

[ardcarp]

I overheard a short conversation between two youngsters today, prompted by the cancelling of church services. Something along these lines:

A. Why can't God protect people going to church?
B. Maybe God loves people and doesn't want them to catch the virus.
A. If God loves people, why has he allowed the virus in the first place?
B. Umm. Maybe God is helping people to fight against it.
A. Is he helping old people not to die?
B. If they die they go to Heaven don't they?
A. I don't really believe in God.....

[DracoM]

Typical.............in fifteen seconds, the universe!

Dear Thomas Aquinas, I'd like to introduce you to two kids I know, because they've got a line on things you may be interested in.............!!

[Bryn]

https://notesfrompoland.com/2020/03/16/archbishop-tells-faithful-not-to-fear-coronavirus-satan-is-powerless-in-the-face-of-holy-water/

versus

[gurnemanz]

I remember our daughter when she was a little girl one day asking me: Daddy, how do you know if you are a Christian? I think she is still waiting for a revelation

[muzzer]

I suppose if some good can come out of this disaster, giving people firsthand reasons to study ethics and religion could be it. But at what price?

[Serial_Apologist]

https://notesfrompoland.com/2020/03/...of-holy-water/

versus

Ah - a font of wisdom, that one.

[jonfan]

I remember overhearing a quick exchange between two year 5 pupils after a talk by a priest.
'I don't believe in heaven'.
'Well you certainly won't be going there then.'

[Pulcinella]

I remember overhearing a quick exchange between two year 5 pupils after a talk by a priest.
'I don't believe in heaven'.
'Well you certainly won't be going there then.'

I'm not sure that I would want to be in a heaven inhabited by some of the people I have encountered who are so confident that there is one.

[ardcarp]

....some of the people I have encountered who are so confident that there is one.

Maybe confidence isn't one of the qualities that would get you there...if it exists of course.

[Serial_Apologist]

My father once told me about a lengthy conversation he had with a priest. "Is it true that the Catholic Church believes the world to have been created 6,500 years ago?" he asked. The priest replied in the affirmative. My father then went on to ask how come, that being the case, scientists had been able to demonstrate through proven means that it was a great deal older than that? Instead of denying this, the priest explained that God had deliberately made the universe - building up the layers of rock formations, inserting bits and pieces of pretend fossil remains, etc. - so as to mislead mankind into believing scientific methods could lead to the ultimate answer.

[jonfan]

I think the message from the exchange of the 10 year olds is that it’s a simple matter of faith, and if you don’t have that then heaven is not an option.

[Constantbee]

I'm not sure that I would want to be in a heaven inhabited by some of the people I have encountered who are so confident that there is one.

As I’ve always believed getting into heaven must be like passing the Oxbridge entrance exam you shouldn’t have anything to worry about there

Coming soon, live streaming of cathedral services btw. Choral evensong from Canterbury available on their Youtube channel.

[DracoM]

And Hereford Cath webcasts can be had as well.

[Serial_Apologist]

As I’ve always believed getting into heaven must be like passing the Oxbridge entrance exam you shouldn’t have anything to worry about there

Coming soon, live streaming of cathedral services btw. Choral evensong from Canterbury available on their Youtube channel.

I take some comfort from the great Alan Watts's suggestion that for the organism to be intelligent must mean that the environment (from which organisms emerge) must also be. With the proviso, of course, that for intelligence to be exercised, it has to be present in the first place. And this - notwithstanding my preference these days for evidence or provability being my guide than blind faith - is not evidenced in the way humanity goes about its affairs and looking after that intelligence whence it comes.

If for God we can use the term "cosmic consciousness" to define the mysterious processes that eventually led to us and our capacity for curiosity and explanation, but also our tendency to confuse description for described, then I would almost be prepared to go along with using God to describe that, given that my political beliefs are no less culpable of blood shed than most if not all religions. But pedantic friends have, of course, queried my application of the concept of "intelligence" to the workings of the universe, evolution, ecology, claiming intelligence only as applying to that very conceptual process through which the explanation becomes the explained.

[Bryn]

I take some comfort from the great Alan Watts's suggestion that for the organism to be intelligent must mean that the environment (from which organisms emerge) must also be. With the proviso, of course, that for intelligence to be exercised, it has to be present in the first place. And this - notwithstanding my preference these days for evidence or provability being my guide than blind faith - is not evidenced in the way humanity goes about its affairs and looking after that intelligence whence it comes.

If for God we can use the term "cosmic consciousness" to define the mysterious processes that eventually led to us and our capacity for curiosity and explanation, but also our tendency to confuse description for described, then I would almost be prepared to go along with using God to describe that, given that my political beliefs are no less culpable of blood shed than most if not all religions. But pedantic friends have, of course, queried my application of the concept of "intelligence" to the workings of the universe, evolution, ecology, claiming intelligence only as applying to that very conceptual process through which the explanation becomes the explained.

For my part, I see intelligence as an emergent property of universal evolution, rather than an immanent property, i.e. matter did not always think but has evolved to do so in, for example, the form of Homo sapiens.